I've had clothes custom-tailored by a seamstress. I've had vacations custom-planned by travel agents. And now, I've received a custom-designed personal health plan from medical experts.

Recently, I joined a group of volunteers at Emory University submitting to an exhaustive -- and exhausting -- "predictive health assessment" that researchers used to determine the specific health risks I face and to prescribe changes to my behavior and lifestyle with the aim of reducing those risks.

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Jack Kearse/Emory University

Ultrasound can measure how thick the wall of the carotid artery is -- a sign of the blood vessel's health.

On two separate visits, researchers measured everything from the thickness of my arteries to the density of my bones. I answered countless questions about my social functioning, my emotional health, my eating habits and the quality of my sleep. I gave up samples of blood and other bodily fluids for standard tests, like cholesterol and hemoglobin levels, and more experimental tests, such as the levels of inflammation in my body and my ability to regenerate stem cells. After developing a personal health plan based on some of the results, I agreed to be nudged on a regular basis by a health coach to make sure I was adhering to my regimen.

Emory's Center for Health Discovery and Well Being, a partnership between Emory's Predictive Health Institute and the Georgia Institute of Technology, is part of an effort to answer one of the most pressing questions for health care in the U.S.: how to reverse the growing burden of chronic disease.

Many experts believe the answer is to shift the focus from diagnosing and treating disease to maintaining good health and prevention. One way to do that is to tailor health care to each individual based on his or her unique characteristics. But doing so in a way that benefits the largest number of people and that doesn't waste scarce health-care dollars on tests and measurements is a daunting challenge. Next month, researchers from Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, Duke University and elsewhere are convening at Emory to explore possibilities for predictive health and personalized medicine.

Eventually, researchers are counting on the decoding of the human genome to identify who is at risk for a wide number of diseases, and to design more effective treatments. But many of these developments may be a long way off, and genetic tests alone have limitations in terms of predicting disease. Lifestyle, environment and behavior have a strong influence on how genes affect health.

Biological Predictors

Emory is researching other biological factors that may predict disease. Study participants are being tested for four processes in the body that some studies show may indicate something is about to go wrong long before standard tests can detect it. These are inflammation, immune function, the inefficient use of oxygen and the capacity to regenerate stem cells in the blood. While these are not specific for a single disease, their function is essential to preventing most common diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and cancer, says Kenneth Brigham, vice chairman for research at Emory's Department of Medicine.

"If we could detect abnormalities in those fundamental processes before blood sugar increased, the heart malfunctioned or cognitive function was impaired, and return the fundamental processes to normal, then we believe that the concept of prevention would be expanded to keeping people healthy," Dr. Brigham says.

Emory plans to use data from its study of 600 of its own employees to help identify areas for workplace interventions, and is randomly assigning half the participants to health coaches to determine their effectiveness. It will also offer predictive health assessments to the public for $2,500, which it says will just cover the costs. (I paid $800, a price offered to early participants whose data will be used but aren't officially part of the five-year study.)

Douglas Campos-Outcalt, associate chairman of the University of Arizona's department of family and community medicine, says the premise that people will change behaviors if they know their personalized risk profile is largely unproven. And unlike most screenings recommended by the U.S. government, such as those for breast cancer or colon cancer, some of Emory's experimental tests may have marginal or no benefit. "Ninety percent of the things you need to know to make positive lifestyle changes you can get from a minimum battery of tests and taking a good medical and family history," says Dr. Campos-Outcalt.

Emory's Dr. Brigham says not all the experimental tests may turn out to be useful, but they could help identify disease and cut costs in future. And while privacy experts warn that patients' data may be used to discriminate against them in employment, Emory says its data will be stripped of personal identification.

Potential Health Risks

As I am a leukemia survivor, now in remission, most of my screenings in recent years have been cancer-related. I wanted to get a broader picture of my health status and potential risks, since heart disease, osteoporosis and high blood pressure run in my family, and my overall immune function has been spotty over the years.

While some of the tests used at Emory are commercially available, not all are in regular use for standard check-ups, or covered by insurers, such as the ultrasound of the carotid artery in the neck. Emory is using it to study the hypothesis that a lower thickness is healthier. (Mine is on the low range for my age group, which is good.) I also had a test with a device that measures the overall functioning of the arteries, by stopping the blood flow in the finger and then returning it to normal, to check risk for coronary disease. My range was above normal on that one, also good.

Measurements of blood pressure with a device that monitored it at the heart and wrist -- instead of just the usual arm cuff -- convinced me that my episodic bouts with high blood pressure needed further attention. (I've since resumed a medication I had dropped two years ago.)

My results on the blood and urine tests, many of which are typically done as part of a physical, were all pretty good. But my cholesterol levels were slightly high, which indicates I need to watch my fat intake and exercise more often, even though I'm generally fit. I also had a good result on C-reactive protein, a test that measures the amount of protein in blood that signals acute inflammation. Inflammation is a natural protective process necessary to keep all of the body systems in balance. But if your body doesn't regulate it properly over a long period of time, it can turn against healthy tissues and cause chronic conditions such as arthritis, diabetes or Alzheimer's.

Fear of Free Radicals

My results on oxidative status, one of the experimental "biomarker" tests, made me a little more nervous. If cells aren't fully converting oxygen to energy, like a misfired car, fuel may not be used efficiently, causing harmful waste products known as free radicals. If the cell is unable to clear itself of free radicals, that causes oxidative stress, which studies show can lead to hardening of the arteries and has been linked to certain cancers.

Dr. Brigham said my slightly higher-than-normal result shouldn't be a source of anxiety until studies determine more about the process. Still, the result made me think about whether I'm eating enough antioxidant-containing fruits and vegetables that are believed to help protect the body from this free-radical damage. I actually ordered Swiss chard in a restaurant recently and started making fruit smoothies for breakfast.

• Email: informedpatient@wsj.com.